Truth-in-housing inspections have been required in Minneapolis and St. Paul for many years. As of May 22, they’re now part of the home-selling process in Columbia Heights.
It’s called a Time-of-Sale inspection, and its primary goal is to ensure that homes sold in the city meet basic city safety codes. The inspection does not apply to properties listed for sale before May 22.
“It’s a way of preserving our older housing stock,” said Mitchell Forney, Columbia Heights community development coordinator. Most of the houses in the city were built in the years just after World War II. He noted other first-ring Minneapolis suburbs have enacted similar ordinances.
The average sale price of a home in Columbia Heights now hovers around $300,000, a considerable increase from $180,000-$200,000 in 2018. The time-of-sale inspection assures home buyers that their future home is in generally good operating condition.
In order to sell their home, a homeowner must schedule an inspection with the city. The inspector comes out to the home and makes sure the house is structurally sound. “We aren’t interested in whether or not the kitchen cabinets have been painted,” Forney said. “We’re looking for health and safety issues.”
They’re also looking for unpermitted work. Forney cited an instance where an inexperienced do-it-yourselfer took out a home’s center roof beam, then tried to prop up the roof with a jumble of short pieces of plywood. In another case, a sagging first floor was held up by floor jacks and 2 x 4s in the basement.
Putting the brakes on flippers
Forney said the city also hopes to prevent cost-cutting house flippers from doing shoddy work on low-income housing. “Contractors don’t always do the right thing,”he said. “A lot of people got burned.”
The City has hired Annette Brustad to work solely on time-of-sale inspections. Her salary is funded through the inspection fees. She did similar work in Crystal for ten years.
Most of the things Brustad will look for are small fixes a homeowner can easily do themselves, including anti-siphon valves on outside faucets and threaded laundry tub faucets, missing or damaged switch plates or outlet plate covers, handrails on at least one side of each stairway with four or more risers and toilets firmly secured to the floor.
Forney said the most common issue is a lack of working smoke alarms.
If a home has an attached garage, Brustad will check to see if the door between the garage and the house is made of a 1-3/8” solid wood or a 20-minute fire-rated door (homes built before 1963 are exempt unless doors have been replaced).
She will also check to see if a home has been illegally converted to a duplex or triplex.
Forney said there was a proliferation of such conversions in the Heights during the 1980s, resulting in a random sprinkling of duplexes and triplexes in areas that weren’t zoned for them. Chances are, those conversions may not have been done to city code.
Forney said the city has received some pushback from real estate agents and title companies about the program, but that subsided when it was explained to them. Resident pushback has been minimal.
Four-step process
The time-of-sale inspection is a simple four-step process.
1. Schedule the inspection. You can apply for a Time-of-Sale inspection with the City on the Time of Sale web page, https://columbiaheightsmn.gov/departments/community_development/time_of_sale_program.php. The application fee is $160, which covers the initial inspection and reinspection. Applications are also available at City Hall and a permit technician can help you fill it out.
2. Schedule a sewer line inspection. You will need to hire a licensed or bonded sewer line inspector to conduct a televised inspection and submit the inspection video and inspection report to the City and potential buyers. If repairs need to be made — they can be expensive — you, the seller, do not have to make them. This inspection serves as notice to the buyer that you’re aware of the situation, and they can put money into escrow to make the repairs.
3. Address hazards. If any hazards are found during the City’s inspection, you can correct them and schedule a re-inspection with the City. If the buyer assumes responsibility for repairs, they must obtain written consent from the City and provide proof of funds held in escrow to cover the cost of the repairs.
4. Certificate of property maintenance. Once all repairs are completed or proof of escrow is provided, the City inspector issues the Certificate of Property Maintenance and the sale can proceed.
An unskilled do-it-yourself homeowner removed the center beam from his house’s roof, then tried to repair the mistake. Though this is an extreme example, it’s the type of safety issue the time-of-sale inspection is supposed to catch. (City of Columbia Heights)